Shares fall 23 percent after Kodak taps credit line

Shares of Eastman Kodak Co. stock tumbled to near its 52-week low Monday.

The company on Friday drew $160 million from its credit line to use for general corporate purposes, Kodak disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission after the market closed Friday. The company did not disclose in the filing any specific purposes for the move, but issued a statement Monday.

“This revolving credit facility has been a part of Kodak’s cash-management tool kit for quite some time. The purpose of the revolving credit facility is to bridge timing differences between cash outflows and inflows, which is a common practice at many corporations. As we have said in the past, our cash flow is highly seasonal. This is a tool to help that manage that seasonality. It’s one of the reasons a company has a revolver,” company officials said.

“We are a global company with the majority of our cash and revenues overseas. For global cash management reasons, we elected to draw down on our revolver. And we are committed to meeting all our obligations.”

The stock (NYSE: EK) closed Friday at $2.38 a share, but sank in after-hours trading. It opened Monday at $1.85 and was trading midday at $1.81, down some 24 percent. The stock traded as low as $1.78 on Monday, 3 cents above its low hit on Aug. 10.